The funny thing is Sharpton would do personally better with Clinton than Obama. He could tell him what he really thinks and get away with it. I'm sure Sharpton knows that, but wants everyone to sort of remember him. I bet Stephen Pagones does.

Say Al, when are you paying him back?

Posted by: Daryl Rosenblatt at
February 15, 2008 10:55 AM

My personal opinion is that Obama would be easier to beat in a general election than Hillary. A good candidate should be able to use his record to nail him to the wall...the problem is McCain is not a good candidate.

Posted by: maddirishman at
February 15, 2008 5:42 PM

Pavlovian is how I've described the right's response to the mention of Hugo Chavez.
You ignored (or more likely,were unable to meet) a challenge on a previous thread to produce examples of "violent socialist thuggery" by Chavez in Venezuela (where even the leaders of the failed coup in 2002 went essentially unharmed-unlike the lead prosecutor who was assassinated before bringing charges against participants) remotely close to the decades of violent right-wing thuggery displayed by Galtiera and Viola(the 'dirty war') in Argentina,Pinochet in Chile,RiossMontt in Guatemala,Somoza in Nicaragua,D'Aubuisson and ARENA in El Salvador,Battalion 316 in Honduras,right-wing paramilitaries in Columbia getting winks and nods from the government as they exterminated leftist politicians and union leaders .We're talking dead and disappeard in the hundreds of thousands.You got any examples like that?
If not,dry the spittle from your chin and admit you were talking out of your ass.

Oh please,that's how you bring it? Specifically,what in the examples you linked to is comparable to,say,Columbia,which averages a union leader executed every week?My challenge to you was examples of "violent socialist thuggery" comparable to some of the most prolific mass murderers in history,all of them from the political right and all of them allied with and supported by the US (with the exception,I suppose,of D'Aubauisson,who despite having his crimes airbrushed by the US was not in fact endorsed by the Reagan adminstration for election).Your selective concern for human rights is laughable.
Lots of the usual 'sky is falling' fear and innuendo I'd expect from a Guiliani sycophant,like ties to Al Queda(do you check under your bed and in your closet for boogeymen before you can sleep?)and editorializing from 'objective' observers like Instapundit and Reporters Without Borders (who are funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and who,for all intents and purposes,do the foreign policy bidding of the American administration).Chavez' brutal crackdown on the media must have been comically ineffective-all of the private media which was instrumental in the failed coup attempt of 2002 continued printing and broadcasting until a single station failed to get their license renewed in 2007.Intolerance of dissent is so pervasive that middle and upper class demonstrations occur fairly regularly,and the 'strongman' lost a referendum in December.Perhaps his 'death squads' should learn a lesson from those in Columbia about suppressing the vote.
You apparently have a problem,too,with his attempts to create a citizen's militia,which is a particularly American-type solution to ongoing US bellicosity,including our facilitation of the failed coup of 2002 and our subsequent recognition of the extra-Constitutional government of Venezuela-the only government in the hemisphere to do so (so much for the rule of law).Not to mention the $300M/yr in police and military assistance we provide Columbia,which shares a border with Venezuela and is in the habit of violating Venezuelan sovereignity in pursuit of FARC rebels.
Put the shoe on the other foot for a change,and imagine the reaction of an American administration(or their cheering sections like yourself) to foreign meddling in our political process (like we do theirs),or the treatment CBS or Fox or the New York Times or the Washington Times would experience were they to endorse armed insurrection against the government contemporaneous with an attempted overthrow.Think it might take them less than 5 years to lose their license?